Friday, July 10, 2009

so...last week...i was in portland. i have to say...i love it there. perhaps the main reason i love it is because when i'm there...i stay at a spa. on the river. what's not to love about that?

i arrived there tuesday afternoon at 215. my boss arrived at 300. a car transported us to the hotel. we checked in. i grabbed my notebook & laptop...and proceeded to her room to work. she has a suite. well...it's more like an apartment. we call it chez vie.

i was once upgraded to chez vie...didn't realize how large it was until i couldn't hear a knock at the door from the bedroom. i'd ordered room service...and i had to keep going from the bedroom...thru the living room & the dining room...to look out the peephole in the hallway (yes...the suite has a hallway...and two bathrooms)...to see if room service had arrived with my food. it also has a balcony...and a patio!

there are four of us on this project. we all have laptops & notepads. we sit around the dining room table. working. cell phones on stun...the only sound in the room is the clicking of keys...as we respond to emails...crunch numbers and input data.

nearby...we have white boards and flip charts. next time...i'll make sure to bring my calculator. crunching figures on a blackberry is too much of a chore.

one of us stops typing. asks a question...of no one in particular. we all contemplate the answer. we respond. the discussion over...we all start typing again. and this is how it goes. all day. it is 9:00 pm before we realize just how long we've been working...and that it is time for dinner.

***speaking of blackberries (two paragraphs up)...they grow along the river. so do blueberries. and a few other things i couldn't identify. there are also a lot of cottonwood trees...and tufts of cotton can be seen floating thru the air.

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one thing i discovered while in portland. i am allergic to shellfish. i'd suspected it once before...when i'd eaten oysters & shrimp and both of my ankles were swollen. but...it could have been the alcohol. or the walking. yeah...the walking. that's what it was.

the first two days in portland...i ate chicken. on day three...i had shrimp enchilladas for lunch...and approximately an hour later...i noticed my ankles were starting to swell. i quickly elevated them...and realized that all that seafood i'd just purchased back at home was going to have to be given to someone that could eat it...because alas...i cannot.

i'm still going to have my doc check me out to make sure i'm really allergic. but...i have also decided that i will not risk eating anymore shellfish until i know for certain.